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Monday, February 9, 2009

The quarterfinal round in FED CUP action took place this weekend with the following results in the World Group Play0ffs:

US 3, Argentina 2France 0, Italy 5

Czech Republic 4, Spain 1

Russia 5, China 0

The biggest news coming out of this weekend's ties was "Fingergate", an incident that occurred during Flavia Pennetta's match againstAmelie Mauresmo. The Italian baller became irate and flipped off Chair Umpire Louise Engzell after she overruled an in-call during the tense second set tie-break; she received a warning for her bhavior.

The overrule gave Amelie a match point but the Frenchie, who was clearly still feeling the effects of the moment, double-faulted and proceeded to lose the match 2-6, 7-6 (9), 6-4. Suffice it to say the 2-time Grand Slammer was not pleased with Flavia's behavior or Engzell's reaction to the incident:

At that moment, I didn't really see and cotton on. She gave the finger - she should have been removed right away.

There are rules and the rules need to be applied. When Zidane head butted in the World Cup final he was thrown out of the match, the same thing should have been done here.

The French team submitted a complaint to the FED CUP committee but ITF Executive Vice President Juan Margets made it known they will choose whether or not to receive it, but the "chances of the score being reversed is pretty unlikely."

I'm not clear on the exact wording of the rules here so I won't speculate, but what seems obvious is Amelie should have closed out this match, regardless of the questionable decision-making by the chair. But it's not surprising - it's just an another unfortunate moment for her during a very unfortunate turn-of-events.